The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

The 1921 Heckscher (Crown) Building - No. 730 Fifth Avenue

In describing Fifth Avenue around 57th Street in 1876, a writer pointed out
the newly-built mansion of Adele L. S. Stevens at the southwest corner.He said that with the exception of Alexander
Stewart’s white marble palace, “It is the most expensive house ever built in
this city.”The value of the land alone
was $250,000.By the turn of the century
Cornelius Vanderbilt’s mammoth chateau filled the entire block to the north and
William C. Whitney was living in the Stevens house.

But times were changing.In February 1920 The New York Times remembered “At that time the
neighborhood of Fifty-seventh Street was called pre-eminently the aristocratic
quarter of the city.It retained that
prestige until half a dozen years or so ago, when the upward march of trade invaded
Fifty-seventh Street, and now few of its handsome residences remain.”

Among those last few survivals were the Whitney
and Vanderbilt mansions.But while Alice
Vanderbilt remained until 1926, the Whitney home had been converted for
commercial purposes years earlier.The
end of the line for the Stevens-Whitney mansion was inevitable following its
purchase by August Heckscher in 1919.

On February 15, 1920 the New-York Tribune announced “The
sensational development planned for the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and
Fifty-seventh Street by George Backer and August Heckscher will mark a new
epoch in the structural and commercial future of Fifth Avenue.The building is to be thirty stories high and
will be a combination of stores, showrooms, offices, apartments and a
theater.At least $8,500,000 is involved
in the project.”The ambitious scheme
would include 10 stories of theater, concert and art exhibition space.

August Heckscher had leased the land to Backer; but after
Backer disclosed his grand plans, Heckscher purchased a half-interest in the
project.“Heckscher Building is the
title selected for the great structure,” reported the Tribune.

The men had commissioned the architectural firm of Warren
& Wetmore to design the building, deemed by the Tribune to be “in the
modern French Renaissance style.”Perhaps
best known for Grand Central Terminal, completed in 1913, the
architects had designed a towering shaft atop the ten-story theater block.But there were problems.The 1916 Zoning Resolution provisions
mandated set-backs to prevent the blocking of sunlight to the city
streets.Warren & Wetmore were
forced to go back to the drawing board.

Warren & Wetmore's original design. New York Tribune, February 15, 1920 (copyright expired)

On August 15 The New York Times reported that a “radical
change” had been made in the Heckscher Building plans.The entire theater idea was scrapped and the
structure’s height, originally 32 stories, was reduced to 25.The architects now described the style as “Francis
I,” which The Times felt “will make the building one of the finest examples of
its type in the country.”

“The first nine stories of the main portion of the building
and the entire Fifty-sixth Street façade will be built of limestone, the
exterior of the remaining walls to be face brick ornamented with terra cotta,”
advised the newspaper.

The completed structure was decorated with French Renaissance
elements and rose to an imposing chateauesque tower with a pyramidal roof
accentuated by ornate dormers and oculi.Above the crown-like finial a 12-foot gold-plated weathervane in the
form of a rooster perched.

The Architectural Forum, October 1921 (copyright expired)

Critic C. Matlack Price commented on the architects’
successful dealing with the new setback laws.“Conforming to the law, architectural thought has turned the situation
to splendid account.”He compared the “pyramidal
profile” to “great Babylonian buildings, with terraces and gardens flaunting
themselves hundreds of feet in the air.”The Architectural Forum agreed.In October 1921 it wrote “the silhouette of the building is perhaps as
attractive as that of any in the city with the exception of the Woolworth
Tower.”

The advertisements for space in the new building were
fashioned as letters from August Heckscher, complete with signature.One, published in The Evening World on
September 27, 1921, ended with a reference to the golden rooster and the change
in the neighborhood.“Le Coq d’Or, which
crowns the Heckscher Building, will always stand as the beacon of progress.”

The area had been for several years the center for New York’s
high-end interior decorating and art firms.Several became early tenants in the Heckscher Building.The first was Warwick House, Ltd., “dealers
in tapestries and paintings” which leased the entire 22nd floor in
November 1921.For years it had done
business at No. 45 East 57th Street.The New-York Tribune reported they “expect to move into their new home
about January 1 after making extensive decorations.”The newspaper saw the move as significant as “it
marks the first step on the part of art and antique dealers to abandoning the
customer street level locations in favor of a floor at such height.”

Two eras: The Heckscher Building looms over the massive Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion. from the collection of the Library of Congress

Warwick House would be joined by Stroheim & Romann,
interior decorators, who took 15,000 square feet at $45,000 a year in January
1922.On January 15 the New York Herald
mentioned that “in light of the fact that Fifth avenue and Fifty-seventh street
is firmly ensconced as the center of dealers in objects d’art, antiques and of
decorators, the establishment of a new center of the upholstery and decorative
trade in the Hecksher Building seems both inevitable and imminent.”

Other tenants included the newly-organized Hamilton National
Bank; the Consolidated Cigar Corporation; Mosse, Inc., “retailers of linens,
trousseaux and children’s layettes;” which took three floors including basement
space; and I. Miller shoes.In 1923 the
newly-founded American Mercury Magazine,
edited by George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken, took space in the Heckscher
Building.

The extremely high rents (Stroheim & Romann was paying
the equivalent of $636,000 a year in 2016 dollars) were turned into a marketing
tool in Heckscher Building ads.One in
March 1922 touted in part “Just as first water diamonds command a price in
excess of paste, just as real Oriental pearls command a price in excess of
imitations, so space in the incomparable Heckscher Building…commands a price in
excess of other buildings with less value in location, appointments and
prestige.”

The advertisement exploited snob appeal, saying “And there
is a genuine satisfaction in knowing that your neighbors are automatically restricted,
by this item of price, to those who appreciate and value ‘prestige’ in
location.”

Unlike the Francois I exterior, the arcade flaunted its modern Art Deco design photo by Byron Company from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

One effect of soaring high above the rooftops of the
neighboring structures was unexpected and unwelcome to one tenant.Novelist Eleanor Gates moved into her
glamorous offices overlooking the Plaza and Central Park; but as autumn 1922
neared, she made a disturbing discovery.A pair of large brown hawks had made their nest “in the plumage of a
gilded rooster which tops the tower of the building,” as reported in The
Evening World on October 2.

While New Yorkers today are happily excited to find hawks
roosting on their buildings and welcome the flying predators’ thinning of the
vermin population; it was not the case with Eleanor Gates.For months she noticed them returning with
Central Park pigeons in their talons.She had pleaded with the Parks Department to do something about the
birds with little success.

“Her hatred against [the male hawk] came to a climax
Thursday when she saw it flapping its way to its home with a pigeon in its
talons, while a flock of little sparrows flutter about it, even settling on its
back, picking between its wings in an effort to help the victim,” reported The
Evening World.“A few minutes later a
little cloud of feathers floated past her window.”

Warren & Wetmore had designed the two-story Fifth Avenue
entrance with a blind shell-topped niche flanked by matching leaded glass windows.The architects apparently never intended the
niche to hold a statue.It was an
element that exasperated internationally-known author and art critique Perriton
Maxwell.Complaining to the editor of
The New York Times on September 20, 1925, he called New York “a city of empty
niches” and said its architects “have left their jobs unfinished.”

The Architectural Forum, October 1921 (copyright expired)

Maxwell pointed out, among others, the Heckscher Building
which “sports a giant niche on its conjoining walls…It is a niche very
purposely designed, it would seem.Its
obvious completion would be the placing of the counterfeit presentment of a
well-known New York philanthropist within its semi-circular sides.”Maxwell’s annoyance would wait more than 60
years to be satisfied.

The building had to contend with worse press than an empty
niche.On the afternoon of November 13,
1924 Nell Hansell was working alone in the small office of retired jeweler
Walter D. Tusten.At around 1:00 she
heard the door open and then gently close.Through the opaque glass of a partition she could see the shadow of a
man moving in the outer office.

When she opened the door of her room, she came face-to-face
with a “tall, strongly built man, revolver in hand.”He demanded she “Throw up your hands!”But although Nell complied, the obviously
surprised and nervous gunman fired his .32-calibre weapon.

The bullet grazed the secretary’s mouth, knocking out two
teeth.Although little harmed, she fell
to the floor and pretended to be dead.The would-be hold-up man, William E. Burns, panicked.Expecting only to take whatever he could find in a
vacant office, he now believed he had committed murder.

The following day The New York Times reported “The intruder
looked down at the motionless form.Then
he put the weapon to his right temple and fired.”Hysterical, Nell Hansell ran screaming down
the hall to the office of Dr. I. Hirschfeld where she received emergency aid.The dead man, who had previous criminal
convictions, left a wife and five young children.

Fleur de lis filled the spandrel panels, carrying on the French motif.

More scurrilous was the shooting on March 29, 1928 which
involved a well-known couple.Not only
were lawyer Dallet H. Wilson and his wife, the former Esther Evans, known in New
York and Washington DC society for lavish entertaining; Esther was famous as a
big game hunter in Africa and an amateur flier.

In the fall of 1927 the couple separated and Esther moved
into the Wardman Park Inn in Washington, where it was said “Her hotel rooms
were filled with trophies of the hunt and with collections from her world
tours.”

At 4:00 on March 29, 1928 she entered Suite 1500 in the
Heckscher Building—her husband’s 10-room office suite.The two conversed for more than an hour and
a half, mostly in quiet tones.Office
workers who came in and out of the Wilson’s office noticed they were discussing
money.“Mrs. Wilson seemed to be
demanding an allowance of $1,000 a month, instead of $450,” reported The Times.

And then the office staff was startled at the sound of two
gun shots.Esther had shot Wilson twice,
one bullet going through his body.The
lawyer survived after two months “in a precarious condition” at City
Hospital.At the police station Esther “became
hysterical and charged her husband with ‘running around with other women.’”She told police that Wilson had encouraged
her safaris and explorations in order to enable his dalliances.

The sensational trial began in on January 19, 1929 and
lasted about a week.Every scandalous detail was
reported by the press.Esther’s
ever-changing testimony included the charge that Wilson had threatened her with
a paperweight, that the shooting was an accident, and that she had lost all
memory of the incident.

Although the jury found Esther Wilson guilty on January 24,
1929; her gender seems to have come to her advantage.While she could have been sentenced to five
years and $1,000 fine; the jury urged six months and no fine.

Later that year, in July, the Hecksher Building welcomed a
prestigious tenant when the new Museum of Modern Art moved in.The museum rented about 4,600 square feet on
the 12th floor for $12,000 a year.The MoMa opened with an exhibition of 101 works by Cezanne, Gauguin,
Seurat and van Gogh.

The museum’s arrival turned out to be as problematic as it
was good for the building.As its
popularity increased, the building’s elevators were unable to accommodate the
rush of visitors and long lines of tenants and museum-goers crowded the lobby.

The Museum of Modern Art remained through the 1932
season.Its last exhibition, organized
by architect Philip Johnson, was "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition."

Although August Heckscher had boasted that the golden
rooster on the roof “will always stand as the beacon of progress,” it was
removed in 1942.The weathervane was
donated to the war effort, to be melted down as scrap.

The Heckscher Building became the Genesco Building in 1964
for its newest and largest tenant.Ground floor alterations were made by upscale retail leasers like
Bulgari which essentially ignored and discarded Warren & Wetmore’s French Renaissance
detailing.

In 1981 Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos sneakily
purchased the building through a consortium of international companies.Its name was changed to the Crown Building in
1983, a reference to the tower, and lighting designer Douglas Leigh was commissioned
to gild and illuminate the façade.The Times
architectural critic Paul Goldberger was both pleased and displeased with the
result, saying“it is too gilded,
particularly on the lower floors; they look not unlike a person with too much
makeup. But near the top, distance reduces the garishness, and the effect is
splendid.”

At the same time the empty niche which so annoyed Perriton
Maxwell was filled.The two leaded
windows were remodeled as near-matching niches (sans shells) and given
gold-covered statues.Some called the
sculptures the Three Graces, but they are most likely generic.

With the fall of the Marcos regime, numerous lawsuits—including
one by the Philippine government—sought possession of the Crown Building.It was acquired by Bernard Spitzer in 1991
for $95 million; sold again in 2014 and in 2015.The $1.8 billion sales price was among the
largest in Manhattan real estate history.

4 comments:

The third photo in this fascinating post seems to answer a question that I often ask myself when I look at the uppermost floors of this building: how is the interior space configured. Alas, when I enlarge the photo to see, it loses resolution and becomes illegible. Can you reproduce it in another form that can be enlarged- or, if not too much trouble, tell me what those floor plans reveal? Many thanks

I could not get better definition, but using a magnifying glass I could see that there is one office on each level, with a tiny bathroom next to the elevator. The top-most floor is only about 30-feet at its widest point, the largest in the tower (floors 17 through 21)appear to be about twice that size.

On a related note, The New York Central (now Helmley) building also has a fascinating roof punctuated with round Windows which seem to indicate that something other than attic space lay behind them. If you ever do an article on the building, it would be fascinating to learn (to me anyway) what that copper clad roof conceals.